The Long Goodbye

PChad left yesterday morning for the Shore 2 Shore with a Roar motorcycle ride.  Thankfully he had decided not to leave too early since he wanted to stop in Moncton & buy some waterproof gloves.  He had been gone for about an hour when I happened to look in the place where we keep our passports.  I knew he was planning on driving through Maine, so he’d need his passport, but I wondered if he had remembered to take it.  I looked, & there it was.

 

I tried to text & call his cell phone, figuring he might stop & check his phone before he crossed the bridge, or maybe he even remembered about his passport & would take his phone out to call me.  After about 10 minutes I knew I either had to follow him, or he’d have to just stay in Canada…

 

I quickly told the kids to get their shoes & coats on because we had to bring Daddy his passport.  Of course I also had to stop for gas!  We tried calling PChad’s phone every 10 minutes, hoping I’d get ahold of him before I crossed the bridge & had to pay the $45 toll.  But we had no such luck.  I got to the bridge, & figured I might as well keep going & keep trying his phone.  Chancery had to go to the washroom, so we had another small detour, then soldiered on!

 

We started calling his phone every 5 minutes instead, knowing that we were probably just going to end up making his phone go dead.  Then I got the bright idea to call the motorcycle shop where I knew he was planning on stopping.  I described PChad to the sales guy, & PChad happened to still be there!  PChad was a little confused when the sales guy told him, “You can run, but you can’t hide!  Your wife’s on the phone for you!”  At that point I was only about 45 minutes behind him, so PChad decided to wait for me at the nearby Tim Horton’s.  So, the kids & I got to say goodbye to PChad twice!

 

I had left the Henry & Vincent (our Taiwanese home-stay students) at home since I can’t take them out of province without prior notification, so now that I knew I was going all the way to Moncton & back, I called Miss Geesje to see if she could go pick the boys up & take them to the farm.  Thankfully she agreed & it all worked out!  Then since I knew the older boys were taken care of, & I had driven the 2 hours & spent the bridge toll to get to Moncton, I figured I should make the most of it, so we stopped at Costco & Value Village before heading back home!  The roads were not the nicest, with lots of rain, & mist the whole way, so I also treated myself to a Starbucks for all my troubles!

 

At bedtime we always ask the kids to say their 3 favourite parts of the day & then we pray about them.  Asher said, “Lunch at Costco, right now, & definitely not driving to Moncton!”

“The Deal”

Every night before bed, we ask the kids to say what their 3 favourite things were that happened that day.  A few nights ago when I asked Chancery, she said “the Deal” was one of her favourite things.

 

Now, the kids are not allowed to watch TV or play video games until 5pm, but I had made a deal with them at 4:30, that if they could play nicely together with no fighting or arguing, they could watch TV at 4:45.  About 5 minutes into it, they were fighting & arguing.  I started coming up the stairs, & Chancery said, “No, Mummy, we are talking about it!”

 

They wanted to sort it out on their own.  However, I have 2 very stubborn, opinionated children, & neither one would back down from the injustice they thought they were suffering from at the other one’s hand.  So I had to get involved.

 

It was now 4:45pm.  Chancery asked if they could have a new deal.  So, I told them that if they could not fight or argue for the next 10 minutes they could watch TV early (it was only 5 minutes early, but any extra time is extra fun!).  This time they had a tiff, but they talked it out (instead of fighting it out), & they managed to get the 5 minutes extra.

 

Even though the first attempt was unsuccessful, the second worked, & Chancery said it was one of her favourite things from that day.  Maybe I’ll have to make more deals!

Dinnertime Prayer

Asher was taking his turn praying his own prayer at dinner the other night, & I had to stop myself from laughing a few times.  It’s just so funny the way kids think sometimes.  But I wanted to be sure not to forget this one…

 

“God, you are awesome, & we love you.  Everyone in the whole world is happy because of you.  But there are some people who don’t know you, and you will defeat them, & forgive them.  Thank you for everything, everywhere in the whole universe.  Amen.”

 

We had just been explaining what the word ‘defeat’ meant, but I don’t think he really understood…

I Hear Noises At Night

Asher has a habit of trying to read books in his pitch-black room after we put him to bed at night.  So, about 15 minutes after I got the kids in bed, when I heard him talking (he reads aloud), I figured he was reading.  I went upstairs, opened his door, & turned on the light.

 

“What are you doing?” I asked.

 

“Just singing a little bit, and praying to God,” he replied.

 

I couldn’t really fault him for that, so I just said goodnight again, & quietly closed the door.

Mixed Theology

At dinnertime we often say our own prayers & encourage the kids to pray for whatever comes to mind.  Asher had quite the prayer…

“God, please help all the people that we love, but not strangers if they are bad.  They should be in the flood that you send, but not the good people, just the strangers…”

There was more, but I couldn’t hear what it was over all the snickering we were trying to suppress.

Don’t worry PChad straightened him out… hopefully.

Sacrifice

We have been encouraging the kids to pray their own prayers at lunchtime, which has resulted in Asher developing a prayer & proceeding to sing it.

 

“Thank you, God, for everything.  Everything around us when we are outside, & everything around us inside.  Thank you, THANK YOU for everything, everything, ♫♪ eve-ry-thiiiing!♪♫

 

Chancery caught on, & began using Asher’s prayer as well.  Even this prayer started to become rote, so we told the kids they should be more specific about what they are thankful for which resulted in Chancery’s…

 

“Thank you for my fork, and thank you for my milk, and thank you for…  *sigh* Daddy’s fork.  Amen!”

 

So the other day, we were quite surprised when Asher came up with the following prayer out of the blue.

 

 

“Dear God, when people are dying, they have to kill a lamb so the lamb dies instead of them dying.  Amen.”

 

Apparently he got confused about the story of the Passover (Exodus 12) that we had read during devotions the day before…

Recovery Time

Asher was feeling under the weather yesterday, so he & I stayed home from church.  Chancery also seemed to be on the verge of getting a cold, so as we were praying for our lunch, prayers for feeling better also went up.

 

Asher prayed, “God please help me to get better in 5 days.”

 

And it seems there is always a spirit of competition in our house, when it came time for Chancery to pray, she submitted, “God, please help me to feel better in…  2 days!”

Prayer Pockets

Yesterday morning PChad was putting a hoodie on & Asher commented, “You can put your hands in your pockets, & hold them together!”

 

PChad agreed that it was possible to do so.  Asher thought for a few minutes about how neat that was & then he came up with an even better idea.  “You can put your hands in your pockets & pray!”

 

“You sure could, that would be a good thing to do, wouldn’t it?” PChad said.  Asher then quickly ran to his room to find a hoodie of his own to wear.  Later when I was at Walmart with the kids, I was glad about his sweater choice, as it came in quite handy that I could remind him of his prayer pockets when he was unable to stop touching items on the shelves!

Earnest Prayer

On Saturday, we stopped at Tim Horton’s for an iced coffee & some TimBits.  Asher saw that PChad & I had drinks, & I suppose he thought the iced coffee looked quite good, so he said, “Mummy, I like that drink with the straw!”

I told him, “It’s coffee & you aren’t allowed to have it because you’re too young.”

Asher decided to inform us, “When I’m one hundred and a half, I’ll be old enough, & then I will be able to have iced coffee.”

And then yesterday I over heard him pray, “Dear God, I wish I was one hundred, so I could drink iced coffee.”

Maybe we won’t make him wait quite that long.

Problem Solver

A few days ago, Chancery was quite eager to eat, but I was still making lunch.  Chancery had climbed up in her chair by the table & was yelling, “Eat!  Eeeeeeat!” at me.

I told her, “Chancery, we aren’t ready to eat yet.  We haven’t prayed yet & we need to wait for Daddy.”

The next thing I heard was, “Lord… bless… us… ANEN!”

She was taking care of the things that were stopping her from eating.  She then climbed down from her chair & went to the door to PChad’s office & said, “Ding-a-ling!”  (Our dinner bell sound).

She’s pretty bright, and very determined when she wants something.

God Is Watching Us

The other night, Asher was having trouble following instructions at the dinner table.  Asher was supposed to be quiet so Chancery could say her little prayer before we ate, but Asher kept trying to prompt her.  Finally PChad told Asher to be quiet & Asher responded, "I WON'T be quiet!"

So, PChad  removed Asher from his chair & gave him a time out.  Asher was quite upset, & as he sat there, he told us, "God makes the rules, and when Daddy give me a time out, God sees that, and he says, no I don't have to!"

Talk about feeling pressure to be a good parent!

Highlights

Each night at bedtime, I ask Asher to think back on the events of the day & say "thank you" to God for his favourite part.

Christmas Eve, as I was putting him to bed, he said, "Thank you God for Thanet coming into my room."

I asked, "Was that the best part of your day? Are you sure? Was it better than going to playschool this morning? Better than eating lunch at McDonald's? Better than opening presents? Better than having a special dinner & eating birthday cake for dessert?!?"

He replied, "Yes, Thanet coming in my room was my favourite thing that happened today."

I guess we might as well take the presents back..........

Pat's Progress

If you've been following the story of my friend, Pat, who broke his neck this past summer, here's an update!



You can read the other posts here & here.

Out Of Left Field

We had sat down at the table for dinner & were bowing our heads in preparation to pray over the meal.

Asher belts out, "Meet me at the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn!"

And that is a little glimpse into our life (and our music choices)...........

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

A gentleman noticed Asher's long eyelashes the other day & commented, "Wow, you have really long eyelashes!  Where did you get those?"

Asher replied, "God found them & put them on me!"

Then when it was time to pray after supper & say thank-you to God for the food, Asher changed it up a bit & said, "Lord, thank you for my looooooooooooong eyelashes & everything else on my body.  Amen!"

Pat Update

A few months ago, I wrote about my friend Pat, who had broken his neck, and was now believing that God would heal him. Here's an update:

An Amazing Testimony

The following video is about a friend of mine that I went to school with. He went on a mission trip & had a bad accident. In the last 2 months, God has been doing amazing things in his life & I just wanted to share his story with you.

Praying For The Birds

Grandma has been having some troubles with her bird feeders lately. We had attributed it to raccoons, but couldn't figure out how they were managing to get to them, since they are not near trees or the edge of the roof.

Last night at bedtime, Asher's prayer shed a little light on the situation.

Me: "Dear Lord...."

Asher: "Please bless the owls that come to our bird feeders in the nighttime. Amen."

Of COURSE it was the owls! I don't know why we didn't think of them in the first place!

God Is Great........

Asher's rendition of the "God is great, God is good" prayer.....

A Housework Analogy

A few weeks ago at Coffee Break we were talking about how our relationship with Christ is something that we have to maintain & work at. It's a bit different from our relationship with our spouse b/c our spouse is physically present to remind us if we haven't spent enough time together & the effects of it can be a bit more obvious.

It got me thinking that living in relationship w/ Christ is a bit like cleaning house. It's not something that you can do once (accept Him into your life) & figure it's good. Rather it's something we have to keep working at. We have to keep asking Him to renew us & consciously keep Him as the number one priority in our lives.

Image what it would be like if you went on one date w/ a guy, then he asked you to marry him, you said, yes, but never saw him again. It wouldn't be much of a relationship, would it?